As you saw from the previous post you can take a rag rug on a hike. Long before that I had a project going on for a decade that was about taking a spinning wheel on hikes and spin on the top of mountains. The first spinning was on Iceland's tallest peak Hvannadalsnúkur. That was in 1994 I think. Then I did some lower ones. There was no real system that steered my choice. More a feeling, instinct or artistic insight? Kaldnasi lies in the mountain ridge Helgrindur on the peninsula Snæfellsnes in W-Iceland. I did 7 summits in all and Kaldnasi was the 7th. Somehow I had managed to lose the first images that were on positive film, like all the spinning on mountains images, and they were lost for some years.

Then one day in 2006 I found them at home in my stuff where they were not supposed to be. That I guess how it is with items that gets lost at home.As I finally had all the 7 summits in my hands I decided: it is now or never! I applied for a gallery, got accepted and threw an exhibition. The exhibition was about mountains in my life. The 7 spun summits, a rag rya piece of art praising the skiing and 3 metal and felt pieces depicting mountain forms and sheep, or more precisely the markings on the ears of the sheep that roam the mountains. There are images of almost all these items on my web.

On my way to 2119 m tall Hvannadalshnukur, Iceland highest peak. With the spinning wheel on my back.

Today I went for a short hike with my friend Þorbjörg nicknamed Tobba. She is a visual artist. I took "November" along. We hiked on a small mountain called Mosfell close to Reykjavik. Part of the hike was to photograph the rag rug November on the top of the mountain. It is 276 m high and the weather was splendid. +4°, sunshine and an easterly wind. I am thinking of taking more rugs on hikes. It was fun and takes a bit of pondering to get the act together. Here are the pictures and we shall see what the future will bring in this project.

On this image I am standing and just holding the rug and the wind took care of the waving and fluttering. Not bad or what? In the background of the various pictures we see Esja, Móskarðshnúkar and Grímmansfell. All mountains taller than Mosfell. But this was the first go.

This is Josephine or Josefin, my sewing machine. Foot treadled beauty from the Singer family. I am not sure how old she is but she belonged to my Icelandic grandmother who hardly used it as she obtained an electric sewing machine soon after this one. This is a wonderful machine and a gem to the eye. Doesn't use any electricity but only legwork or footwork. Josefin is the perfect machine for a rag rug weaver. Sometimes I use another machine which is already around 40 years old and does the sick-sack and other fancy things that Josephine doesn't do. But for the weaving I only need the straight stitch that she offers.